1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for performing technical training by utilizing a communication network such as the internet. More specifically, the invention relates to a system for distributing a highly precision oriented special technical educational program according to which a surgical operation or any other manual operation is performed under direct observation, performing educational training of highly precision oriented techniques by which a surgical operation or any other operation is performed by a specific customer (that is, such a surgical operation or other operations is controlled through visual instructions or oral instructions by use of three-dimensional image composition based on information obtained while a visual field of a person with no technical knowledge assumed to be a robot from a remote location), or providing image information of an invisible region together with a direct surgical field image to a visual perception visual field of a surgical operation without a need for the medical practitioner to take his eyes off the surgical field.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in the case of providing training regarding a surgical operation or any other special manual technique in the clinical field, a medical practitioner and an instructor face different visual field directions and adopt different postures, and it is thus difficult to provide training regarding manual technique such as accurate instrumentation, which not only increases operation time but also causes the instructor to block the medical practitioner's view so that the operation may have to be interrupted temporarily; further, it may also cause a patient to feel uneasy in a conscious operating environment and suffer from a psychogenic shock.
Conversely, in the case of instructing a student to perform a highly precision oriented technique such as a surgical operation by an instructor, if the technique and the surgical operation on a closed site are to be observed from identical ideal visual field as the instructing medical practitioner (lecturer), in order to permit a plurality of students (customers) to sequentially observe an operating situation at each step of the surgical operation, not only extremely much of time is required but also the number of persons who can observe the operation simultaneously is limited by the physical constraints of the facilities used for the operation, and such lectures have been observed by very few people. In addition, if the instructing medical practitioner (lecturer) and the student (customer) speak different languages, an interpreter needs to be present during the surgical procedure, so that a fee per student (customer) for participating in such an educational program has been expensive.
Moreover, both in the case of instructing a medical practitioner and the case of an instructor instructing a student, an operator needs to once take his eyes off a surgical field and closely watch and confirm information such as an X-ray picture, a CT picture, an MRI picture, or an electrocardiogram, so that it has been difficult to share the information with others especially at a remote location in real time.
Further, in the case of a surgical operation, it is difficult to transport a patient himself to a remote location for an educational program; also, in the case of other special techniques performed by hand which require large facilities or unmovable instruments, a visiting student used to arrange his schedule so as to fit in with the operating date and spend much transportation costs and time required by transportation. Also, in the case of distributing an educational program to a remote location by using various types of communication means, if a surgical operation on an individual is to be disclosed to a third party fundamentally, to obtain consent of a patient himself for responsibility of privacy protection, of course, the much the same responsibility is imposed on information so prevent it from being leaked along a communication path. Conversely, in the case of training on a surgical operation or a practical training of highly precision oriented operation which is performed at a remote location, instructors (groups of lecturers) must go to a spot that requires a lot of costs, so that various costs (transportation costs and time required by transportation) related to the training and, moreover, the remote area requiring much time to go there could not easily accommodate performing of an emergency surgical operation; especially in the case of training by a plurality of instructors (groups of lecturers), the costs involved have swollen even further and an emergency surgical operation has proved even more difficult to conduct.
Furthermore, it is prohibited by medical licensing legal regulations to conduct medical operation abroad, so that it is basically impossible to conduct a lecture of a live operation visiting educational program and practical training of a surgical operation by which the instructors (groups of lecturers) themselves perform the surgical operation abroad.
Further, if a medical practitioner (customer) actually wishes to be trained in a surgical operation or any other highly precision oriented techniques conducted manually, it is essentially impossible to gather instructors (groups of lecturers) and persons with excellent skills and knowledge who are scattered around to one place at the same date and time so that a surgical operation may be edited or managed. Furthermore, there has been no system for discussing a shared three-dimensional image while displaying a three-dimensional instruction image.
Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Application No. 2556829.